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MESTA MACHINE COMPANY • PITTSBURGH, PA
A

50th ANNIVERSARY
1898- 1948
P L A N T a n d
PRODUCT
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M E S T A M A C H I N E
APR 2 Q 1?-'1_
C O M P A N Y
CARNEGIE LIBRARY OF PITTC
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General Offkei and Work* of the Meita Machine Company, West Homestead. Pa.. (Pittsburgh District)

-tfeorge l fiesta
George Mcsia, while President ol The
Lcethhuijt Fnuiklry jnd Machine Gunpjuv.
planned its consolidation with
the Rohinson-Rca Manufacturing Company,
to form the Mesta Machine Company
in IS98. He served as President
from thai tunc until his death in 1925.

-"torcHC Jv eraen
Ptcsidcni Lorcnl Ivcr-cn started work
with the Mi-u Machine Company as
a draftsman in 1902. In 1925 he was
elected to the Board of Directors and
made Vice President and General Manager.
In 1930 he was made President,
wln.li office he has held since that time.
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General Offices of fhe Mesta Machine Company
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November 21, 1948 marks the fiftieth anniversary
of the founding of ihe Mesta Machine
Company. However, ihe name MESTA was
already well known throughout the sieel industry in 1898; in fact the
chain of events which resulted in the incorporation had its beginning
eleven years earlier.
In 1885 George Mesta graduated from the Western University of
Pennsylvania, now the University of Pittsburgh. For a time he taught
mechanical drawing but saw a broader opportunity for his inventive
talents in industry and in 1887 accepted a position as director of the
engineering department of the Leechburg Foundry and Machine
Company, located at West Leechburg, Pa.
It was not long before George Mesta demonstrated his inventive
ability, and in 1892 he was awarded a patent on a machine for removing
scale from steel. This product is still known as the Mesta Patented
Pickling Machine and is universally used throughout the steel industry-
Financial assistance from his family and friends enabled him to
purchase a controlling interest In the Leechburg company, and under

his aggressive leadership as President the small concern soon outgrew
its limited facilities. The chief Competitor in the manufacture of heavy
steel mill machinery at that time was the Robinson-Rea Manufacturing
Company of Pittsburgh. George Mesta foresaw the favorable future
possibilities that would follow the consolidation of these two companies
and worked diligently to accomplish this end.
In 1898 the merger was completed; the Mesta Machine Company
was born and George Mesta was elected President. A large tract of
land was purchased in the Borough of West Homestead, in the center
of ihe Piitshurgh Area's fast growing steel industry. Complete and
integrated manufacturing facilities, consisting of plant and office
buildings, were erected on the new site. The location of the plant gives
it unsurpassed shipping facilities. It has direct connection with three
of the nation's largest railroad trunk lines.
The new company was favored with an ever increasing volume of
business and its growth has paralleled that of the great American
industries which it serves. Mesta has made many important contribulions
in the field of design and invention, and has become famous in
this country and abroad as the leading manufacturer of steel plant
equipment, rolls, and heavy duty machinery. A list of products manu-

factured is included in this book, together with photographs illustrating
many of the unusual units that have been manufactured.
A large and capable engineering department is maintained where
the machinery built by the company is designed. Plans for complete
plant projects are also developed. These include not only designs for
mechanical equipment, but also for buildings, foundations, electrical
distribution systems, and all engineering required for the creation
of a modern industrial plant.
A staff of practical and experienced construction supervisors is
constantly employed in the field to see that the detailed plans of the
engineering department are efficiently executed. They direct the work
of building erection and equipment installation, from breaking ground
to completion.
President Lorenz Iversen exercises direct supervision over all
operations of the company. In the years since he started with Mesta
as a young man in the drafting room. Lorenz Iversen has gained
world-wide recognition as an outstanding engineer and designer of
many of the important machines used in industry today. Under his
capable leadership as President since 1930. the company has continued
to maintain and strengthen its pre-eminent position.

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A section of the Mesta Engineering Department whet*
equipment to fit individual requirements is designed.

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Expert croftsmen have every facility for malting patterns of
any size Of intricate shape in Mesta's modern Pattern Shops.
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Pottern for stationary crossheod casting of a
Mesta 18,000 Ton Hydraulic Forging Press.

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Mesta workmen tap a heol o* quality alloy
Heel in the Electric furnace Department.

Working a heat of high quality steel
Mesta Open Hearth Department.

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Four ladles are teamed to pour the 600,000 pounds of steel
required for making a 12,000 Ton Forging Press cap.

Forging large ingot on a
Mesta 6,000 Ton Hydraulic
Press.
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Machining a forged < T '
steel rotor shaft for a ,,_>. ,
turbine driven gener- -V
alor installation at I ) J •
Grand Coulee Dam.
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Turning 53" x 90" sleeve
On a twenty foot vertical
boring mill for Cold Mill
Backing-Up Roll.

Hydrostatic testing of four large, one piece, forged
steel pressure vessels, manufactured in the Mesta Shops.

Barbette carriage base ring for 16" coast defense gun, being
machined on a Mesta Forty Foot Vertical Eloring Mill.

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Mochining cost steel cap for 12,000 Ton Hydraulic
Press on a Mesta Seventeen Foot Heavy Duty Planer.

Simultaneously machining pairs of large
housings for Mesta Continuous Strip Mill.
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Cast steel slob squeezer frame being
machined on Mesta Draw-Cut Shapers.
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Mesta I 6 Fool Heavy
Duty Gear Hobber in
ihe Gear Cutting Deportment.

One of Ihe Erection
Floor Sections where
Mesta products are
assembled prior to
shipment.
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A section of Mesto's No. 1 Roll Shop.
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Rolling Mills
Bar, Bill*', Blooming, Continuous Merchant, Non-Ferrous,
Piercing, Pipe, Plate, Rail. Rod. Sheet. Shovel, Skelp,
Slabbing, Slabbing-Blooming, Fov'-High Ho' Strip,
Four-High Cold Strip. Structural, Tin Plote, Tire, Tube,
Universal. Wheel
Rolls and Mill Pinions
Chilled ond Sand Iron Rolls
Mesto Grain Rolls
Nickel Chill Poll-.
Nickel Grain Rolls
Mesto Hardened Chill RolU
Mesto Hardened Groin
Rolls
Mes'a Duplex Rolls
Sleel and Alloy Steel Rolls
"Mei'o Special" Alloy
Steel RolU
Chrome-Molybdenum
Steel Rolls
Mesto High Alloy Sleel
Rolls
Heo'Treo'edSpxiol Alloy
Steel Bocking-Up Rolls
Forged Hardened Steel
RolU
Cost or Cut Tooth Mill
Pinioni
Machine Molded Mill
Pinions
M E S T A
Rolling Mill Equipment
Shear*: Mei'o Patented 'lying. Bar, Billel. Bloom,
Crop, Hydraulic, lever, Plo'e, Slab, Squaring,
Steam Hydraulic
Furnm-e Charging
Equipment
Manipulators
Mill Tables
Flembte Couplings
Sheor Gauges
Slab Scales
Cooling Beds
Tranifers
Conveyors
Pusher*
Buggies ond Cars
Hot and Cold Saw
Pock Annealing Be
IFisk Polenti|
Annealing Boies
Pileri
Mesto Polen'ed Feed Reels
Tension Reels
Belt Wrapper!
Mes'a Po'ented Sheet
Chargert
Elec'rolylic Cleonini lines
Continuous Brightening
Lines
Me-to Patented Pickling
Machines
Continuous Pickling lines
Processor i
Flash Bull Welders tor
Strip S'eel
Scorn Welders
DESIGNERS AND BUILDERS

Rolling Mill Equipment — Cont.
Geor Drives
Cut and Machine Molded
Iron and Sleel Gears
Coiler*
Coil Boxes
Heavy Duty Planer*:
Tobla-Type, Post-Type
Heovy Duty Draw-Cut
Shapers
Heovy Duty Boring Mills
Gear Ploning Machines
Combination Shoping,
Boring and Milling
Machines
Trimmeri ond Slitter*
Stitching Machine*
Stroightening Machines
Levellers
Scrap BaMer*
Special Machine Tools
Pi'-Type, Double Breast
Heovy Duty Boring and
Turning Laities
Trepanning Lolhes
Ingol Slicers
Roll Grinder*
Roll Lathe*
Gear Hobbing Machine*
OF COMPLETE STEEL MILLS
Presses and Equipment
Hydroulic ond Steam Hydroulic Forging, Bending ond
Forming Presses Large Po«-«r Presies Intemifier*
Accumulolors
Forgings
(Open Kearlh ond Electric Furnace Alloy ond Corbon
Steel) Large Shot'*, Ship Shorn, Billet*. Bloom*. Picon
Rod*, Connecting Rod*, locomotive Axle*, Reaction
Tower*, Air Bottle*, Boiler Drum*, Crank*haft*, Hollow
and General Forging*, Gear Rimi, Roll* and Mill Pinion*
Gas and Steam Engines for Blast Furnaces,
Rolling Mills and Power Plants
Una-Flow Engines
(Stumpl Potent*)
Piston ond Corlis* Valve
Engine*
Reversing Engines
Blowing Engines
Barometric Condenser*
Air Heads
Air Compreisor*
Vacuum Pump*
Mes'o Au'omoiic Plo'e
Volve* llverien Polenlil

Mesto 40" Two-High Reversing Blooming Mill, equipped with
universal spindles and modern high speed manipulator.

Mesta 160" Four-High Reversing
Plate Mill, with individual motor
driving each work roll.
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Mesto 29" Structural Mill
with traveling tilting tables.
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esta 80" Four-High Continuous
Hot Strip Mill.

Mesta 42" Four-Hi
Five-Stand Tandem
High Speed Cold Mill,
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Mesta 56" Four-High
Cold Mill lor temper
passing of sheet gauges.

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Billet Mill.

Mesto 32" Bar Mill
showing intermediate,
leader, and finishing
stands, with transfer and
manipulators.
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Mesta 18"—14"Merchont
Mill with pack annealing
cooling bed ond equipment.

The world's first 80" Four-High, Five-Stond Tandem
Mill for the production of wide aluminum strip sheets.

Mesta 195" Backed-Up Armor Plate Leveller.

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* Mesta 1 4,000 Ton Hydraulic
Forging and Bending
Press for armor plate.

Machining double breast planer rails on a
Mesta Seventeen Foot Heovy Duty Planer.

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Mesto 42" Tin Shearing Line showing
Mesto Patented Combination Flying Shear
and Leveller with Classifier and Piler,
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Pickling steel sheets with a
Mesta Patented Pickling Machine

Mesla-Thomson Flash
Welder located at
"try end of a
Mesta High-'.;
Continuous Pickling
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lattery of five 4 2" Mesta High-Speed
Electrolytic Cleaning Lines.
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Discharge end of Mesta 42" Continuous
Electiolytic Tin Plating Line.
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Rough-turning a large forged steel shaft on a
Mesla I 10" Heavy Duty Lathe.
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Finish-grinding Ihe body of a large backmg-up roll on a Mesto
60" Heavy Duty Traveling Wheel Type Roll G'.'
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MESTA

Gear rims used in marine propulsion
drives, forged in one piece by Mesto.

Mesta produced in a special division great quantities of
heavy guns including the largest regularly wed by
United States Aim»6

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a
155 MM "long Tom'' Gun, one of
Mesto's contributions to World War It
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36-inch Mortar "little David," powerful
weapon designed ond manufactured
by Mesto for the United States

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Group of three 32" Mesto Potented Pickling
Machines for pickling drop forgings.
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18,000 Ton Hydraulic Forging
Press crosshead, loaded for shipment.

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